LAHORE: A Lahore High Court division bench on Wednesday summoned a “responsible” senior official of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to answer several queries arising during hearing of petitions against ban on Youtube, a popular video sharing website. Bytes for All, a non-government organisation (NGO), and others had filed petitions demanding the court to lift the […]
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pervez Rashid on Monday assured a Senate standing committee that the ‘Right to Information Bill 2014’ would be presented before the cabinet in its next meeting for approval. During the meeting of the Senate standing committee on information and broadcasting presided over by Senator Kamil Ali Agha, the members […]
ISLAMABAD: Journalists covering Senate proceedings on Wednesday walked out of its press gallery against a proposed law described as a move to curb freedom of speech while reporting the proceedings of parliament. The bill titled Members of the Parliament (Power, Immunities and Privileges) Bill, 2014, was tabled in the Senate by PPP’s Senator Farhatullah Babar […]
I SEEK a clarification from information czars, the ministry of law and experts on citizens’ right to information. Can a citizen seek information from the Presidency relating to expenses incurred on the President House, his official visits, and the various secretaries and staff deputed for the ceremonies and upkeep of his establishment? All this is […]
KARACHI: I would like to seek an important clarification from the information commissioners, the Ministry of Law and experts on the citizens’ right to information. Can a citizen seek information from the presidency relating to expenses incurred in the presidency, his official visits, and the various secretaries and staff deputed for the ceremonies and upkeep […]
His Excellency Ban Ki-moon Secretary General of the United Nations United Nations Headquarters New York, NY 10017 CC: Amina J. Mohammed, Assistant Secretary General Dear Mr. Secretary General, We write to you as a coalition of civil society organisations committed to sustainable development, to urge you to highlight the importance of the right to information, […]
PESHAWAR: The Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA) urged citizens of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab to use the Right to Information law to improve transparency and accountability in public service delivery. Filing requests for information under these laws is not only a legal and constitutional privilege, but should also be taken as an obligation, stated […]
The blockage of the popular video-sharing website, YouTube, which was shut down in Pakistan on September 17, 2012, to prevent access to a blasphemous video continues. Video excerpts from the aforementioned movie sparked protests and violence across the Muslim world. During one of the spates of violence, the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, was […]
It has been two years since Pakistan banned YouTube, the popular video-sharing platform. Last government imposed the ban; this government continues to enforce that. No exit is in sight. A few civil society organisations have been commendably campaigning for YouTube restoration on legal grounds, but their efforts have so far been stonewalled by the Federal […]
KARACHI: Two years, a new government and the promise of change, and at least 20 court hearings later, internet users from Pakistan are still denied access to YouTube. This restriction of access has become the symbol of a state which has increasingly become obsessed with controlling the online space in a non-transparent manner. The ban […]
ISLAMABAD: Despite lagging behind Punjab in many areas, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) government is far ahead of Shahbaz Sharif’s Punjab government in the implementation of Right to Information (RTI) Act. The official data and the research conducted by this correspondent indicate that the bureaucracy in KPK seems readier to share information regarding its working to […]
IT’S been two years since the ban, and everyone seems to have forgotten. Those who know how continue accessing YouTube using proxy servers. Those who don’t know how have simply moved on with life, using other video-sharing websites as a substitute. In the middle, at some point that nobody cares to remember, the site was […]
LAHORE: A segment of the Punjab bureaucracy, at the first stage of implementation of the Punjab Transparency and Right to Information Act (2013), thwarted the efforts of the government to provide information to citizenry to have transparency in the system. The departments interpreted the act on their own and denied information, a petitioner said. Tariq […]
AS Pakistan enters another year of independence, we often find ourselves asking the question: Are we really free? What does freedom mean in practice? Is it simply the right to exist as a ‘Pakistani’ citizen? To me, freedom means being entitled to the full spectrum of my human rights, including the right to education and […]
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